More evidence on the value of Chinese workers' psychological capital: A potentially unlimited competitive resource?
07 May 2008-International Journal of Human Resource Management (Taylor & Francis Group)-Vol. 19, Iss: 5, pp 818-827
TL;DR: In this article, a positive approach to Chinese HRM that recognizes, develops and manages the psychological capital (PsyCap) of workers is proposed, and the results of a follow-up study provide further evidence that the PsyCap of Chinese workers is related to their performance.
Abstract: As China continues its unprecedented economic growth and emergence as a world power, new solutions must be forthcoming to meet the accompanying challenges. We propose a positive approach to Chinese HRM that recognizes, develops and manages the psychological capital (PsyCap) of workers. After providing a brief overview of hope, efficacy, optimism, resilience and overall PsyCap in today's Chinese context, the results of a follow-up study provide further evidence that the PsyCap of Chinese workers is related to their performance. The implications that this evidence-based value of Chinese workers' psychological capital has for China now and into the future concludes this study.
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01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: M@n@gement is a double-blind refereed journal where articles are published in their original language as soon as they have been accepted.
Abstract: Copies of this article can be made free of charge and without securing permission, for purposes of teaching, research, or library reserve. Consent to other kinds of copying, such as that for creating new works, or for resale, must be obtained from both the journal editor(s) and the author(s).M@n@gement is a double-blind refereed journal where articles are published in their original language as soon as they have been accepted.For a free subscription to M@n@gement, and more information:http://www.management-aims.com© 2012 M@n@gement and the author(s).
28 citations
12 Jun 2012
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of psychological capital on quality of work life (QWL) of nurses is investigated and a test based upon a sample of 207 nurses of four hospitals reveals that PsyCap has positive impacts on QWL.
Abstract: Today, healthy organizations such as hospital have found out the importance of quality of work life (QWL) of their personnel. QWL direct to enhancement of job satisfaction and improvement the quality of services to patient hospital and high performance. Psychological Capital (PsyCap) is one of construct contributes to the formation and increasing QWL. Thus this study investigates the effect of PsyCap on QWL. In this regards, it has been paid to how PsyCap factors such as self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resiliency impact on QWL. A test based upon a sample of 207 nurses of four hospitals reveals that PsyCap has positive impacts
28 citations
Cites background from "More evidence on the value of Chine..."
...…is the positive organizational behavior and its derivative PsyCap, which is defined as an individual’s psychological state of development (PsyCap; Luthans et al. 2008) characterized by: “(1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging…...
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...Research shows that PsyCap is a more state-like factor than personality traits, that is, it is more open to be developed and managed (Luthans et al. 2008)....
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...Research shows that there is a relationship between PsyCap and job performance (Luthans et al. 2008), and a relationship between QWL and job performance )Koonmee & et al. 2010)....
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27 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the influence of organizational psychological capital on the performance of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) during crises has been examined, and the authors suggest that SMEs use their intangible resources to cope with difficult situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract: This study examines the influence of organizational psychological capital on the performance of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) during crises. We argue that SMEs use their intangible resources to cope with difficult situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we investigate how organizational psychological capital impacts performance and creative innovation through such intangible resources, namely, organizational citizenship behavior, solidarity, and cooperation. Methodologically, we combine structural equation modelling and regression analysis on a dataset of 379 SMEs. Our results support the notion that organizational psychological capital positively influences creative innovation of SMEs and thus performance during crises. Our research contributes to the organizational behavior literature by showing that psychological resources of SMEs can strengthen performance in times of crisis and help to prepare for future ones. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our economic system tremendously and continues to be a threat, especially for small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). Our research shows that a shared positive thinking, namely, Organizational Psychological Capital, can be used by SMEs to counteract the negative effects of exogenous crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a dataset of 379 SMEs, we highlight that organizational psychological capital positively affects creative innovations of SMEs and leads to better performance. Thus, the principal implication of our study is the fact that SMEs should place a stronger emphasizes on their organizational psychological capital and try to stay positive, as it will help them to come up with innovative ideas coping with the effects of the crisis, ultimately increasing their performance and survival rate.
27 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the relationship between psychological capital and performance and identified work family spillover and psychological well-being as a mediator of the effects of psychological capital on performance.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between psychological capital and performance and to identify work family spillover and psychological well-being as a mediator of the effects of psychological capital on performance. Data was gathered from 361 white-collar employees from different occupations. The results based on Structural Equation Modeling reveal that psychological capital plays an important role in providing employees to have high performance. The results also indicate that psychological well-being and two dimensions of spillover (positive and negative work-family spillover) mediate the effect of psychological capital on performance. Implications of the results are discussed, and avenues for future research are offered.Keywords: Psychological capital, work family spillover, psychological well-being, performance, positive psychologyJEL Classification: M12, M541. IntroductionThe world is changing, so are the organizations. Contrary to the past, traditional approach and resources are inadequate to gain competitive advantage in global economy and intensive competition. Today organizations must invest in employees and increase their psychological capital to have competitive advantage. One of the most important features of psychological capital is to increase individual performance.In the past, work and family interactions suggested that having more than one role affects individual health and performance negatively. However, in recent years people realized that having more than one role raises individual resources, so the work family spillover concept was built up. According to this concept participation in one role positively affects the performance in the other role. Researches on work family spillover showed that balancing work and family roles by spilling over increase work performance (Grzywacz and Marks, 2000). On the other hand, according to Keyes, Hysom and Lupo (2000), psychological well-being refers to employees' perception and assessment of the quality of their lives, and the quality of their psychological and social functioning. As employee well-being increases, the performance of the employee and therefore, the productivity, and profitability of the organization (Warr, 1999) also increase.The aim of this study is, therefore, to identify the mediating role of work family spillover and psychological well-being on the relationship between psychological capital and performance in an emerging country. The data is collected from different occupations; like academicians, doctors, nurses, police or bank employees, and analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). This study contributes to the organizational behavior literature, particularly, in terms of integrating psychological capital, work family spillover, psychological well-being and performance and providing data from different occupations.2. Psychological capital and performanceThe theoretical foundation for psychological capital is based on positive psychology and positive organizational behavior. Positive psychological capacities meet the criterion of being related to performance, on the other hand the positive organizational behavior is fully expected to have a significant impact on work outcomes (Luthans et al., 2007a). Therefore it is inevitable that the construct of psychological capital, which is included in positive organizational behavior to have positive and significant impact on performance.While human and social capital are now widely recognized and well researched, psychological capital goes beyond human and social capital to gain a competitive advantage through investment/development of "who you are" and "what you can become in terms of positive development" (Avolio and Luthans, 2006). On the other hand, psychological capital provides some benefit on individual and organizational manner. Psychological capital is a psychological resource that may fuel growth and performance at the individual level. …
27 citations
Cites background or result from "More evidence on the value of Chine..."
...This result is consistent with many researches in the literature (Luthans et al., 2005; Luthans et al., 2007a,b; Luthans et al., 2008a,b; Walumbwa et al., 2010; Avey et al., 2010; Rego et al., 2010)....
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...Some other researches indicate that psychological capital, as a composite higher-order factor, predicted work performance (Luthans et al., 2005; Luthans et al., 2007a,b; Luthans et al., 2008a,b; Walumbwa et al., 2010; Avey et al., 2010; Rego et al., 2010)....
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References
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01 Jan 1997TL;DR: SelfSelf-Efficacy (SE) as discussed by the authors is a well-known concept in human behavior, which is defined as "belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments".
Abstract: Albert Bandura and the Exercise of Self-Efficacy Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control Albert Bandura. New York: W. H. Freeman (www.whfreeman.com). 1997, 604 pp., $46.00 (hardcover). Enter the term "self-efficacy" in the on-line PSYCLIT database and you will find over 2500 articles, all of which stem from the seminal contributions of Albert Bandura. It is difficult to do justice to the immense importance of this research for our theories, our practice, and indeed for human welfare. Self-efficacy (SE) has proven to be a fruitful construct in spheres ranging from phobias (Bandura, Jeffery, & Gajdos, 1975) and depression (Holahan & Holahan, 1987) to career choice behavior (Betz & Hackett, 1986) and managerial functioning (Jenkins, 1994). Bandura's Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control is the best attempt so far at organizing, summarizing, and distilling meaning from this vast and diverse literature. Self-Efficacy may prove to be Bandura's magnum opus. Dr. Bandura has done an impressive job of summarizing over 1800 studies and papers, integrating these results into a coherent framework, and detailing implications for theory and practice. While incorporating prior works such as Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977) and "Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency" (Bandura, 1982), Self-Efficacy extends these works by describing results of diverse new research, clarifying and extending social cognitive theory, and fleshing out implications of the theory for groups, organizations, political bodies, and societies. Along the way, Dr. Bandura masterfully contrasts social cognitive theory with many other theories of human behavior and helps chart a course for future research. Throughout, B andura' s clear, firm, and self-confident writing serves as the perfect vehicle for the theory he espouses. Self-Efficacy begins with the most detailed and clear explication of social cognitive theory that I have yet seen, and proceeds to delineate the nature and sources of SE, the well-known processes via which SE mediates human behavior, and the development of SE over the life span. After laying this theoretical groundwork, subsequent chapters delineate the relevance of SE to human endeavor in a variety of specific content areas including cognitive and intellectual functioning; health; clinical problems including anxiety, phobias, depression, eating disorders, alcohol problems, and drug abuse; athletics and exercise activity; organizations; politics; and societal change. In Bandura's words, "Perceived self-efficacy refers to beliefs in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments" (p. 3). People's SE beliefs have a greater effect on their motivation, emotions, and actions than what is objectively true (e.g., actual skill level). Therefore, SE beliefs are immensely important in choice of behaviors (including occupations, social relationships, and a host of day-to-day behaviors), effort expenditure, perseverance in pursuit of goals, resilience to setbacks and problems, stress level and affect, and indeed in our ways of thinking about ourselves and others. Bandura affirms many times that humans are proactive and free as well as determined: They are "at least partial architects of their own destinies" (p. 8). Because SE beliefs powerfully affect human behaviors, they are a key factor in human purposive activity or agency; that is, in human freedom. Because humans shape their environment even as they are shaped by it, SE beliefs are also pivotal in the construction of our social and physical environments. Bandura details over two decades of research confirming that SE is modifiable via mastery experiences, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and interpretation of physiological states, and that modified SE strongly and consistently predicts outcomes. SE beliefs, then, are central to human self-determination. STRENGTHS One major strength of Self-Efficacy is Bandura's ability to deftly dance from forest to trees and back again to forest, using specific, human examples and concrete situations to highlight his major theoretical premises, to which he then returns. …
46,839 citations
"More evidence on the value of Chine..." refers background in this paper
...However, there is now considerable evidence, both conceptually (e.g., Bandura 1997; Snyder 2000, 2002; Luthans et al. 2007b) and empirically (Magaletta and Oliver 1999; Carifio and Rhodes 2002; Bryant and Cvengros 2004), that they are independent constructs....
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...Self-efficacy is the positive belief or confidence in one’s ability to perform specific tasks (Bandura 1997)....
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TL;DR: The authors outline a framework for a science of positive psychology, point to gaps in the authors' knowledge, and predict that the next century will see a science and profession that will come to understand and build the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.
Abstract: A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless, The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living. Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance are ignored or explained as transformations of more authentic negative impulses. The 15 articles in this millennial issue of the American Psychologist discuss such issues as what enables happiness, the effects of autonomy and self-regulation, how optimism and hope affect health, what constitutes wisdom, and how talent and creativity come to fruition. The authors outline a framework for a science of positive psychology, point to gaps in our knowledge, and predict that the next century will see a science and profession that will come to understand and build the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.
12,650 citations
"More evidence on the value of Chine..." refers background in this paper
...Positive psychology (e.g., see Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000; Synder and Lopez 2002), positive organizational behaviour (Luthans 2002; Luthans 2003; Wright 2003; Luthans and Youssef 2007; Nelson and Cooper 2007); positive organizational scholarship (Cameron, Dutton and Quinn 2003), and…...
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TL;DR: The authors investigated factors that affect translation quality and how equivalence between source and target versions can be evaluated through an analysis of variance design, and concluded that translation quality can be predicted, and that a functionally equivalent translation can be demonstrated when responses to the original and target translations are studied.
Abstract: Two aspects of translation were investigated: (1) factors that affect translation quality, and (2) how equivalence between source and target versions can be evaluated. The variables of language, content, and difficulty were studied through an analysis of variance design. Ninety-four bilinguals from the University of Guam, representing ten languages, translated or back-translated six essays incorporating three content areas and two levels of difficulty. The five criteria for equivalence were based on comparisons of meaning or predictions of similar responses to original or translated versions. The factors of content, difficulty, language and content-language interaction were significant, and the five equivalence criteria proved workable. Conclusions are that translation quality can be predicted, and that a functionally equivalent translation can be demonstrated when responses to the original and target versions are studied.
9,422 citations
"More evidence on the value of Chine..." refers methods in this paper
...All scales were translated into Mandarin Chinese using back translation methodology (Brislin 1970, 1980)....
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TL;DR: An examination of converging findings from variable-focused and person-focused investigations of resilience suggests that resilience is common and that it usually arises from the normative functions of human adaptational systems, with the greatest threats to human development being those that compromise these protective systems.
Abstract: The study of resilience in development has overturned many negative assumptions and deficit-focused models about children growing up under the threat of disadvantage and adversity. The most surprising conclusion emerging from studies of these children is the ordinariness of resilience. An examination of converging findings from variable-focused and person-focused investigations of these phenomena suggests that resilience is common and that it usually arises from the normative functions of human adaptational systems, with the greatest threats to human development being those that compromise these protective systems. The conclusion that resilience is made of ordinary rather than extraordinary processes offers a more positive outlook on human development and adaptation, as well as direction for policy and practice aimed at enhancing the development of children at risk for problems and psychopathology.
5,961 citations
"More evidence on the value of Chine..." refers background in this paper
...Resiliency is the capacity to bounce back from adverse or stressful situations (Masten, Best and Garmezy 1990; Masten 2001; Luthans 2002)....
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...At one time thought to be very rare and even ‘magical’, resiliency is now recognized to be a psychological capacity that all individuals possess (Masten 2001), but it needs to be developed and unleashed....
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TL;DR: A new model is advanced to describe the form and function of a subset of positive emotions, including joy, interest, contentment, and love, that serve to broaden an individual's momentary thought–action repertoire, which in turn has the effect of building that individual's physical, intellectual, and social resources.
Abstract: This article opens by noting that positive emotions do not fit existing models of emotions. Consequently, a new model is advanced to describe the form and function of a subset of positive emotions, including joy, interest, contentment, and love. This new model posits that these positive emotions serve to broaden an individual's momentary thought-action repertoire, which in turn has the effect of building that individual's physical, intellectual, and social resources. Empirical evidence to support this broadenand-build model of positive emotions is reviewed, and implications for emotion regulation and health promotion are discussed. Even though research on emotions has this new perspective are featured. My hope is flourished in recent years, investigations that that this article will unlock scientific curiosity expressly target positive emotions remain few and far between. Any review of the psychological literature on emotions will show that psychologists have typically favored negative emotions in theory building and hypothesis testing. In so doing, psychologists have inadvertently marginalized the emotions, such as joy, about positive emotions, not only to test the ideas presented here, but also to build other new models that might illuminate the nature and value of positive emotions. Psychology sorely needs more studies on positive emotions, not simply to level the uneven knowledge bases between negative and positive emotions, but interest, contentment, and love, that share a more critically, to guide applications and pleasant subjective feel. To date, then, psychology's knowledge base regarding positive emotions is so thin that satisfying answers to the question "What good are positive emotions?" have yet to be articulated. This is unfortunate. Experiences of positive emotion are central to human nature and contribute richly to the quality of people's lives (Diener & Larsen,
5,198 citations
"More evidence on the value of Chine..." refers background in this paper
...…Luthans and Youssef 2007; Nelson and Cooper 2007); positive organizational scholarship (Cameron, Dutton and Quinn 2003), and positive emotions (Fredrickson 1998, 2000) have all provided evidence that individuals flourish when the focus shifts from fixing what is wrong with people to…...
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